Malware is malicious software. Some Malware will only touch your system lightly, and some will heavily. I sometimes deal with people with a simple adware (Advertisements) and it leaves them with a redirect, which is normally just editing your hosts file. Then, some files/programs, whatever you want to call them, can disable your task manager, registry editor, can modify your registry, and can even disable the explorer. I dealt with one of those the other day. Keeping yourself safe online is essential to. Do you want ads popping up all the time? Do you want people to watch what you do and control your computer? Do you want all your passwords stolen and changed? This is what malware can do.

Enable Windows Automatic Updates - Microsoft will supply you with updates. Updates such as security. You should always keep your system up to date or you system will be more vulnerable than others and you will experience more problems than if you had the updates.--

Anti-Virus - One of these programs are essential. You want an anti virus which is scanning constantly. Some anti viruses only scan and remove files when told to. You also want to make sure it's always up to date. This will make your system more secure as new virus definitions are being added to the database. Only run one anti virus program. Running two or more may make your system insecure as they will override each other. --

Firewall - A firewall is vital to your computer system. It will help monitor your inbound and outbound connections. Some will also block suspicious connections from a suspicious file. Use this like an anti virus, don't have two or more running as they will conflict with each other.--

Antispyware - Some anti viruses may have this built in to them. I'll give you some downloads at the bottom of this thread on some anti spyware programs.--

Sandboxing - If you download a file, and comes across clean, but you are still suspicious - it could be crypted to make you and your anti virus think that. You can run the file in question with a sandbox which means that it will run but in through a program, it won't modify any of your system files. --

Online virus scanning - This can be vital to keeping your system safe. The virus program you use may not have the virus in the database so it may come across clean, that's when you upload it to an online scanner, which it will scan through multiple anti-viruses and anti-spywares.

The good thing about having a free product from one of the leading Internet Security (IS) companies is that they use the same AV engine as in their commercial products. What you get in the stripped down versions is a smaller feature set. Few include spam filtering, improved firewalls or parental controls.

The free offerings from Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender and Panda all fit this bill, yet all offer basic antivirus and anti-malware protection, giving you a good chance to keep your PC free of threats which could lose you data and take a lot of time to put right.

Here's the top 5 free antivirus rated for 2016

1. Avira Free Antivirus

Overall, this is one of the best free AV applications you’re going to find. With perfect scores from AV-Test, a good range of facilities for a zero-cost suite and a well-designed interface which is easy to use and direct, Avira Free Antivirus is a great choice to protect your PCs.

2. BitDefender Antivirus Free Edition 2016

BitDefender Free Edition will suit a certain kind of user, one who just wants to install the software and let it do its job, without recourse to setup changes or manually scans. Since it has such a high protection score, it’s safe to do this, but if you prefer to have more hands-on control, you may find this approach frustrating.

3. Panda Free Antivirus 2016

Panda is one of the leading antivirus providers and this free offering includes a couple of interesting extras. We were surprised at the time it took for both the initial and follow-up test scans, but its protection levels are sound and it’s very easy software to set up and forget.

4. AVG Free Antivirus 2016

AVG Free continues to be one of the best free antivirus programs you can download. It offers a good selection of key protections, though you do have to be careful to install the right product.

5. Avast Free Antivirus 2015

Avast Free Antivirus 2015 is one of the best free security products you can install. It offers a surprising range of free goodies, including application and browser app analysis and, separately, an excellent Android suite, covering AV and anti-theft. A better than average AV-Test rating completes a very impressive picture.

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